


What The Past Holds

by AllisonNoir



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Dan is a bookworm from now - accept it, Danny really needs some sleep, Ghost Biology (Danny Phantom), I'm Bad At Tagging, Is it supposed to be a warning if someone is canonly dead? I mean it's not a new thing right?, Jazz has a thing with tidiness in her room - a very serious thing!, Jazz is an overprotective sis and also likes to know people, Post-Episode: s02e08-09 The Ultimate Enemy, if an on-going psychologist wants to know things she will go get those things, if you want to keep him away from doing 'evil' things just give him a damn book, what are you doing today? I don't know telling my sis I am dead?, why am I even tagging these kind of nonsenses?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28916736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonNoir/pseuds/AllisonNoir
Summary: “I don’t come here for trouble,” Dan explained, and as he calculated that was the main thing that she had to be aware of for their own good. “Jazz, I-” why the words were so heavy to say aloud? He took a deep breath and spilled it.“ I came here for help.” Yeah, in this way, it would be better, he realized. First, getting Jazz, and by winning over Jazz’s trust getting to his younger version: Danny.Not much after escaped from the Thermos that imprisoned him, he faces a situation that he can't solve on his own. Things soon are starting to get complicated as he, in the meantime, has to deal with something that he thought he had lost a long time ago.
Kudos: 16
Collections: What The Past Holds





	1. Familiar Face

**Author's Note:**

> as the story goes I'll change and add things to the tags, list of characters, and warnings
> 
> also I put it into a collection because there later would be some parts that could be read as stand-alones, but also the part of it, so-

He couldn’t tell how it happened, he couldn’t tell why or when it turned out like this, and he ended up here, but right now he was standing in front of the so familiar door, hand raised to knock. It was like visiting a haunted house. And indeed for him, it was exactly a haunted house. He even couldn't tell when he had been here the last time, maybe a few years ago? No, that was ten years, Dan reminded himself. That was his first/last memory before everything had changed.

He was wondering about the reason why he was here now, after all, gazing at his hand in mid-air, hesitating, trying to get the nerve to hit the door, but then instead of knocking, Dan pushed the ring. It was school-time as he calculated (or as far as if he remembered well it was school-time right now) so _he_ – Danny, his much younger self – was out, his parents were on patrol, and…

In a split second, as he put together the whole, he realized if everyone was out why the hell was he standing in the door waiting for an answer? But then something moved inside and a silhouette of a red-headed teenager appeared behind the door through the frost-glass. _Jazz_ \- it came from a faint memory. But her name sounded in his mind like a curse, as the person would have been a pain in his ass. Some things never would change, he noted and tried to concentrate on his tone. This or that might have altered since his last appearance, but he was still the same, some things couldn't just disappear or got rewritten by a single snap. Maybe it was a bad idea. And all things considered what the idea could be if not 'bad', he wasn't either-

“Yeah?” the girl asked kindly before she could get a better look at the person on the other side of the door. “What can I help?” Dan held back a breath. He was sure she wouldn’t have been that nice if Jazz could have been aware of who was her guest. He was also thinking why she was home, but it was just a slight flash, and before he could mind what to say, it slipped out, just at the same time when she stepped out from the covering of the door, revealing him for herself in the door-step:

"Hello, sis."

* * *

Jazz was tapping on the kitchen table with her fingers. It was unlike from her, behaving tensed, but he could understand it. The last time when he saw her, well, wasn't _kind_ \- to be exact, _he_ wasn’t very kind. Dan was sitting far away from her on the couch and since she had invited him inside and he had taken a seat, he didn’t move, he was just fidgeting with his hands constantly (why was he even doing this, he wasn’t stressed, though…). Then suddenly Jazz jumped up, most probably to occupy her haywire thoughts about him being here, and the current situation, with something.

“I’m making tea. Would you like some?”

“I, uh… _yes_?” Dan said and for some unknown reason, he added: “Please.”

Jazz stopped her motion to the last note, but then continued to prepare the kettle without saying a word. It felt like an eternity, turning on the stove, heating up the water, waiting for it to whistle in a high voice... but then she made the two cups ready with each teabag inside and put both on the table. Dan glimpsed at it from the corner of his eyes and waited patiently for the next move. He didn’t feel he should go to the kitchen table or did she expect him to…?

Jazz of a sudden showed the seat next to her. He raised a skeptical eyebrow, asking without words ‘are you sure?’, but the teenager silently took in hand her cup and sniffed from it, with a slight movement of her head that intended to mean nodding. Dan slowly got up from the couch and walked to the table. At the last moment as he touched the frame of the seat he looked to the girl for permission or to change her mind in the very end, but Jazz didn’t move. Dan took the seat then and took in hand his cup of tea too. It was warm and smelled good and he could even remember the taste of it, it was Jazz’s favorite: strawberry. He slightly smiled in his mind to the memory, burying the mystery of how could he recall that picture in the first place.

He sniffed from the tea, and he could tell Jazz was examining him during that time, like an investigator would have monitored a prison at the bar. For a second Dan wondered that she was eyeing him because she had poised his portion, but he couldn’t believe that. Jazz wasn’t like that. He was just a bit paranoid - basically, he shouldn't have been here, and he knew both of them were keeping the illusion that everything was all right, and as he wouldn't have been a ticking bomb (that right now was just malfunctioning for an unknown reason).

“Now, what?” he put down the empty cup then after a few silent minutes. Jazz too took hers down and gazed into the air.

“Now, I think you owe me with some explanation.” her voice was clear, clearer than usually it was – or more like _had been_. He wondered if she had been just like that or she was just trying to be brave with such steadiness, clearly avoiding to look right to him.

“Right” Dan sighed, tapping uncomfortably with his fingers on the cup. “It’s quite a long story actually… I don’t think we--”

“We have time,” she said. Without a check to the clock on the microwave, he knew they did not, in an hour everyone would be home, and…

“Listen, Jazz, I--”

“No.” she cut him in the middle, staring suddenly at him, gazing through his soul – if he would have any. “You listen to _me_! I don’t know much about Danny yet or who you exactly are, but I know some things. I know you are him. Or at least a grotesque screwed-up version of him, but I- I won’t let you hurt him or my family either! Are you getting it, _brother_?” she almost hissed the last words.

Dan blinked at the sudden unexpected outburst. It was surprising and shocking hearing her behaving like that, ready to fight with him even with bare hands if that was necessary, but he could understand her reaction. Dan opened his mouth, then closed and breathed out a single: “Yes.” he didn't want her to try to fight with him, after all, she was just a simple human. Jazz could get hurt and he- it was really unnecessary.

“Good.” she closed the debate, again gazing to the air. He could tell she tried to hide her fear. In her slight mimics, the shock was visible that a moment ago she had just shouted at _him_. But the anger covered completely that realization. It was much better that way, he couldn't have known what to do if she started to panic. It was weird to say, but anger was much predictable than acting in fear.

For a while neither of them said anything. Jazz was clearly determined to snap back again and furious and… curious and concerned. Dan had seen much to detect the hidden feelings. He thanked for the tea and gave back Jazz the empty cup to wash them, then he put together his fingers thoughtfully. Dan couldn’t know where to start. First of all, Jazz was that he had expected the least. But all in all, she was the easiest way. Jazz was – had been – rational, examining everything, maybe that was his luck, she could have paved the way to the final aim, Dan suddenly realized.

And either he couldn't tell how Jazz felt about him being here. It was currently an act, but what for? Was she trying to occupy him instead of letting him loose and getting the threat out of her vision or was she acting up calmly, but carefully not picking the sleeping lion to get the reason why he was here? Dan couldn't tell yet. And to tell the truth he couldn't ever read Jazz. The memory that she was knowing about his – _Danny's_ – secret for a while and didn't say anything and... it was so cloudy. And technically, she either wasn't his Jazz, he reminded himself. Time differed it. He couldn't tell what was the same anymore.

“I- I don’t want him to know about me being here,” he said then, recognizing those minor details were insignificant to the whole picture. Dan didn't clear whom he was talking about, but he was sure it was quite obvious. Jazz turned back to him for a slight movement, without saying out loud the question.

“I don’t come here for trouble,” Dan explained, and as he calculated that was the main thing that she had to be aware of for their own good. “Jazz, I-” why the words were so heavy to say aloud? He took a deep breath and spilled it.“ I came here for help.” Yeah, in this way, it would be better. First, getting Jazz, and by winning over Jazz’s trust getting to his younger version: Danny.

The sound of the breaking cups in the sink didn’t surprise him at all, to tell the truth, he prepared for a much worse reaction. Really, for a much, much worse one.

* * *

If he considered it, it wasn’t as bad as he imagined it. It was definitely weird, seeing the city like this, but it was – _had been_ , he corrected himself – his home. Not much after Jazz had broken the cups, his – _Danny’s_ – parents had arrived home. They had got out from the Fenton RV with a long face that they hadn’t managed either this day to catch Phantom or any other ghosts (because the prior one had outrun them again).

Jazz had welcomed them and had made a confession about the broken cups. Those, according to her, had slipped out from her hands, when she had been too distracted by listening to her latest video about the potential universities. Good lie, sis – Dan had cracked a smile on it. And his parents had easily believed her (not that their daughter would have been a regular liar, against their son). Dan had scoffed at their naivety and small-mindedness.

His younger self had arrived home just a few minutes before curfew baffling something about a late course about a group project with Sam and Tucker. Dan had nearly laughed at the poor excuse. So he _had been_ like that. He had almost exposed himself when Danny had stepped inside the house and the common blue mist had come out from the boy’s mouth, telling a ghost was nearby. His younger version had looked around searching for every possible threat, but as from nowhere could have been heard a scream or signs of noise or any ghosts – thanks to the invisibility trick –, Danny had unwillingly but stepped inside the house.

Dan hadn’t wanted to be in sight for his younger self so he had settled down on the roof and patiently was waiting for the night time, in the meantime, he was marking the city from above. It was peaceful and weird and… almost nostalgic. He became calmed by it and relaxed. It could be his town too, he wondered. And soon after everything went silent in the house, telling everyone was in their rooms resting, he heard as a window was opened below him. Dan slipped through the roof straight to Jazz’s room.

“Hey” he greeted her, his voice was a low careful whisper. Jazz dumbfoundedly realized that he hadn’t come inside from the specifically for that reason opened entry.

“Hey” Jazz closed the windows and marked him. “I thought, you disappeared.” her voice was a little worried. Dan was surprised she was concerned if he had disappeared. Much to her luck, he did not. He was thinking for a moment exactly why she was relieved that he came back. Was she happy that he wasn’t roaming making a mess in the town or was she relieved because seeing him was less threatening than imagining the opposite, and a problem less to worry about outside?

“No, but Danny--” he started, and just in time, someone knocked on the door. Speaking of the devil, he chuckled in his mind, just as his ghost sense manifested as a red mist through his nose.

Dan immediately turned invisible like a used-to reflex from a forgotten past and stepped inside the darkest corner to be completely out of vision, but still seeing the scene in case of anything. “Tell him Dad experienced with ectoplasm on bugs, that’s why his senses detect ghosts nearby,” he whispered a made-up, really imaginable reason that only Jazz could hear. She gazed towards him – or where she suspected he was –, confused, but then opened the door and used the same words as she was told to describe the situation to her little brother in the door.

Danny crossed his hand, rolling his eyes and groaning unbelievably to his sister’s tale. “Really? That’s just _fantastic_. That really messes up my senses. Now I know, I won’t sleep the whole night, wondering when it’s some sort of ghost bugs or a real threat. Really thanks, dad.” cursed the boy. Jazz faintly glimpsed towards where she last had seen the reason for the misbehaving ghost sense, but right now there was just thin air for her vision.

“I will talk with them in the morning, okay? Try to sleep, Danny, tonight I think it will be only the bugs.” she was really on to sound convincing, if Dan hadn't known he was the reason, he would have believed her too. She had the talent to persuade people about things for their own good.

Danny looked at her exhaustedly. It was seen the boy was really deprivating some sleep. For a second, it seemed as his younger version wanted to say something, but then he resignedly sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. “You might be right.” the teenager was almost on to sleepwalking straight back to his room when Jazz caught him at the last moment.

“Danny,” her brother wearily looked at her. “I’ll be awake for a while, studying. I think I should tell I will be loud, so…”

“Okay,” Danny mumbled like it would have been a surprise that his sister used to study aloud. The boy was on to leave now, but then again Jazz stopped him, grabbing his hand gently.

“Danny, wait. We haven’t talked about this Phantom-thing yet. I’m not saying, right now or tomorrow, but I’m here if you want to talk.”

Danny stared at her for an endless minute, but then nodded. “Okay.”

“But right now, go to sleep, brother.” she pushed a little Danny’s back to be out of her room in fine. “You look like someone who died.”

Danny cracked a smile at the phrase, but agreed. “Well… _thanks_?”

Jazz closed her door behind her sibling, waiting for the other door to be closed, meaning her brother returned to his room. Then she switched on the light on her desk, getting out from his shelf a book and a pen. Dan at first thought she was just pretending it, but then she started to prepare for studying, really on to _study_. Did she forget he was here? For sure, invisibility did not help for her to be aware of his presence, but-

“Are you really going to study now?” Dan took the question wonderingly, stepping out of his hiding place, really hoping he was wrong. Jazz looked at him as he was slowly turning visible in her eye-corner and smiled. So she was just on purpose played with his patience. “No.” Great. It didn't help she was smiling now widely.

“Thank goodness, I was worried I have to listen to you again studying the whole night.” Jazz turned towards him with her chair, dropping the satisfied smirk.

“You know, I can still scream and tell Danny you are here.” Dan stayed in silence, biting his lips. That was just great, she knew how to play dirty. “Yeah, I thought so.” Jazz added. “Lucky you, I already studied for the test, but I think you still owe me some explanation, _Danny ._ ”

Dan let out an annoyed growl. “I already told you.” 

“No.” was Jazz facing him seriously. It seemed as she got more comfortable with his presence, too comfortable to be accurate. Maybe Jazz managed to understand in fine that he was really not on to hurt anyone right now, or she was just trying to find out the reason about his current not so detrimental behaviour. Anyway, it was quite cute Jazz tried to act like she was winning in the debate, and that she could lead him by her words. Yeah, she was the older between them, but with Danny. Right now, he was the major, in every view, but Dan listened to her. “You told me you need help, but you didn’t tell in what.” she pointed.

Dan crossed his arms, annoyed by the interrogation. “You don’t have to know that.”

“Oh, _really_?!” she exclaimed a little harshly for a secret conversation.

For a very long minute both of them remained quiet, air tensed, but then Dan sighed firstly, knowing nothing would change if he wouldn’t say anything. To his surprise Jazz didn’t feel uncomfortable, cramped, or either got scared by his presence, rather on the contrary. It seemed his attendance was just adding fuel to the fire. He couldn’t frighten her. He had to try another way to affect her. Much to his luck and willingness, he had to consider her method, and _talking_ with her. Otherwise, he would have never got her trust.

“Right." Dan sighed resignedly "It’s Vlad. I-” he couldn’t know how to explain the whole. Most of all, Jazz wasn't conscious of anything yet regarding Phantom, and either his younger self saw or could understand the whole. If Dan could put the pieces together by the previous conversation between the two siblings, Danny was aware Jazz knew he was Phantom, but they hadn’t yet had the 'being-Phantom-and-my-sister-knows-I’m-him' talking. She couldn't perceive anything about it, just a slight piece she could grasp.

“I need to- I need to contact with him.” Dan said then, letting avoided to point that namely, he needed Plasmius' kind of help a.k.a. a help from the creepy fruitloop part of the person, not Vlad's kind of one. But she didn't have to know that. An on the other hand he wasn’t sure Jazz knew who Vlad exactly was.

Jazz gazed at him blankly, he knew she had thousands of questions, just like why would he need specifically Vlad's help, but she couldn’t tell where to start. And then again, Dan wasn’t the one who should have told her everything. It was Danny’s task. Dan thanked well, but he rather avoided that obviously awkward discussion, just as explaining her everything from the beginning.

“Listen, Jazz, I- currently I just need you to cover me from myself, from Danny, okay? Could you do that?” 'Cover', as far as reaching the point that she would trust him enough to convince his younger version too, then all would be on the right path – he added to himself the little clarification of the note, waiting patiently for the answer.


	2. Future Issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz had to face the fact that technically she was right now hiding him, that very monster who impersonated his brother not a week ago, from... Danny. Was she nuts? But there were some things that just didn’t fit at all, actually, rather everything seemed fishy around her brother’s so-called future-self.

The test wasn’t tough, she should have checked the answers the second time, the third time, and just for being sure that she didn’t miss anything for a fourth time too – but right now she was gazing into the air, blankly, with no focus on the paper on the desk. She knew her answers were right. She had filled in the questionnaire within ten minutes while the others were still working on theirs.

Usually, she passed the time by checking the answers, again and again, perfecting more and more the given solutions, but now her thoughts were too much engaged with something else. The remaining time for writing the test seemed enough to recall the memory about last afternoon, about that very particular person in the door. And this time as she couldn't concentrate at all on the test-paper, she let her attention flow away with the mystery of her very unexpected guest.

Just as Danny was still avoiding talking about the bits of the Phantom-issue, Jazz had the time waiting for him to think about it, and prepare her questions – and the list of those questions was growing by every minute, just as she added the most of it since future-Danny had arrived in human form, against the forms she had last seen him.

Jazz was well aware of what had happened the last time, not a week ago, before the C.A.T. She still had nightmares about that monster mimicking his brother, and that… knowing that person was Danny, his future self – or  _ would be _ – was still shocking. And 'shocking' was really a light word for describing that fact.

It was still strange grasping that Phantom was her little brother. They were so  _ dissimilar _ , where Danny could be described as rather shy and jumpy, Phantom was ready for every possible threat to handle. They were similar, physically yes, over the visible differences within the two forms – in the human version black hair with blue eyes, and snow-white hair with glowing green eyes in the other case –, though, but yet…

Since after Jazz had got to see his transformation, the parallels were just like a slap on a face. She had even wondered why hadn’t she realized those likenesses earlier, they both even had the same lame sense of humour. And on the other hand... 

But  _ that thing _ last week – she was just like her parents if she referred to a ghost by a ‘thing’ – was not his brother, with its slightly turquoise skin, flaming white hair, and murderously inhuman red eyes. That was utterly something else and… then, that thing had been standing at their door in his somehow human form, still so much reminding of its –  _ his _ – other form and to her little brother. But just as Jazz could recognize the similarities between Phantom and Danny, she had seen in that human appearance that monster too, and even he had greeted her by a ‘hello, sis’. So that had become quite clear who he was, hell with the human disguise.

Right now Dan – as it/he called himself – was her guest. She still had to step over that, mainly that she was the one who generously offered it in the first place. In some moments she was caring about his howabouts, but in some moments she hated him so much that she wished him to disappear and even… she even wanted Danny to find out about him and her brother would have sent him back to the Ghost Zone or where Dan had come from. It was eating her alive, thinking one after the other, she was never cruel, and her excuse that she would have been just protecting her family by that was a quite low explanation. Dan was…  _ he  _ was…

As Jazz glanced at her hand for a moment, which still ached a bit as she moved it in a certain angle, she had to reconsider what she was thinking about that being. The bandage was tight – enough that she could move her fingers – covering her cuts by the broken cups and…

He had jumped up from the chair right next to her, grabbing her wrist in a blink of an eye and making her left hand intangible inducing the broken pieces falling out of her skin... she had been gazing at the sink blankly before she could have comprehended what was happening around her. She wasn’t afraid or sick of seeing blood, but-

“Does Mom keep the same place the first aid kit as she used to?” he had asked with a slightly frustrated tone. She hadn't been able to answer, she had been literally frozen in her place. "Jazz!" he had tried to snap her out of the sudden shock.

The scene was so unimaginable. He had been holding her wrist tight, trying to reach by his other hand the top drawer of the kitchen cabinet. Then he had bandaged the cuts in her palm, carefully and even attentively, muttering some cursing under his nose about her recklessness, shaking his head constantly in disbelief. It was so...  _ bizarre _ . And confusing. Definitely confusing. It didn't fit the picture in her mind about that monster from last week. He had _ cared _ – or that had been just annoyance against her human fragility? She doubted.

Jazz sighed and tried to approach the problem from an other side. What did she know about him? Maybe one or two things, or aught – if she tried to collect the facts. He had been cruel, impersonating Danny not a week ago, ready to destroy her brother's future by cheating on the C.A.T., with clear malice in those crimson eyes without any remorse by his actions or the aftermath it might have caused... Jazz couldn't even refer to him as a person – or a ghost – that had been a monster, worse than any destructive spirit or entity she had ever seen…

And what was right now? Those bright blue eyes that were looking at her, while he had been treating her injury, were  _ haunting _ , but not as haunting as a noxious ghost's eyes could be. His eyes mirrored hurt and regret and  _ hoping _ ... He was on an edge of breaking, holding on to something that was still unknown to her. And yet, the two were the same. It was a bigger issue than she could have coped with. Her mind felt like it was stuck in a damn roller coaster without a safety belt. She needed more information.

Jazz stared at her paper and checked the watch on her wrist. Only five minutes had elapsed. She looked around in the classroom and with a sigh, she gave up to hold on more for any more minutes. Jazz grabbed her bag and stood up. Mrs. White raised an eyebrow at the movement and followed Jazz with her eyes as she was nearing the teacher's desk.

"Already done Ms. Fenton?" Jazz got surprised by the sharp tone, then it clogged together. It was clear Mrs. White had heard about her brother's issue about the possible cheating case too. Yet Jazz was the smartest, the teacher after all those years was doubting in her currently. Fine, she swallowed the pique, not that she apparently lost the teacher's favoritism but rather that one slight moment seemingly defined from now on both her and Danny too. It wasn't fair. Everyone deserved a second chance. And Danny was even focusing more on his studies since then and they were-

Jazz slapped the test paper on Mrs. White's table. "Yes!" it sounded harsher than she would have liked to say it, though it gave exactly how she was feeling. She could tell some students raised their heads up from the snap. She had never raised her voice in school before and she had never ever stood against a teacher. She was the model student, until now.

Jazz was thinking about what she was supposed to do. Should she have apologized for her behaviour? No, she admitted, she wouldn't give them leverage, not for now. She was holding her fingertips on the paper, stretching, but then she slowly released it and without any word, she left the class, even slammed the class door behind her.

It was unusual, she wasn't feeling wrong about it at all. It felt good. Jazz couldn't even tell if she had any other lessons today, she was just walking to her car and drove home, anger clouded her mind. Was it the start of a moral downhill or a last push to be a jerk or... but then she saw it wasn't about her, it was about Danny and... it was about Danny  _ all along _ !

Being or turning Dan – that other self – was also about Danny, and her brother's future was what that monster had endangered and had tried to trigger to destroy. Not that Danny wouldn't have had any other problems to cope with- she would never forgive for that attempt to that creature, but still...

She had gasped as he had finished with the bandage. "I think it would be good. I am kind of out of practice, but..." his voice had trailed off, and just patted encouragingly carefully on the covered injury. "It will do it, I guess."

She had needed another minute to put together what had just happened, but after that, she had peered up to the man who was so eerily similar to her brother – or as she could have imagined her little brother in the future, not that muscular and tall but, with the same concerned look on his face and in those icy blue eyes.

"Thanks, Danny." it had just slipped out. Her brother's older version had raised his eyes to her, opening his mouth to say something, but then he had just turned his head away.

"It's Dan." he had mumbled under his nose, packing back everything to the kit. She couldn't tell where the borderline was between the two figures – between that inhuman monster and that human form.

After Jazz parked on the other side of the road then the Fenton RV – keeping the safe distance in case of her father would be the next behind the wheel –, she stepped inside the house. Jazz heard some scientific noises from the basement, with even some green flashes. With the vehicle at home, she already guessed today her parents decided to increase their anti-ghost weaponry. Jazz exhaled heavily and hoped it would take them more time to create another Fenton-invention against ghosts. Was it unfair wishing that? Before she could have thought about that she rather took the stairs.

It was better to hurry before her parents would have heard she arrived home and started rambling about their new ideas. There was a reason she naturally stayed in the library on weekdays – she couldn't tell on the first time she made it to concentrate on her studies more or to avoid them and it later grew up to actual interest and studying and by that to be an A+-student. She couldn't tell by now. It was an interesting fact – she noted to examine it some time, but right now, she entered her bedroom and locked the door behind her.

"Home already?" the question came behind her along with a very familiar sound. Jazz immediately turned back surprised by the scene that her brother's older self was sitting on her bed with pulled up legs – luckily without his boots, just in socks – reading a book, just to start a new page. Jazz had to check twice why the tome in his hand didn't look familiar to her. It wasn't from her shelf and she doubted anyone would have had it in the house.

She couldn't know how to feel and which surprised her more, that his brother – rather his brother's somewhat alternate future self – was reading a book or that undoubtedly he had stolen it from a library. Did he completely lose his mind? He supposedly could sense her confusement, because he peeked up from the pages.

"What?" his voice sounded annoyed – but technically he never seemed other than pissed-off.

"Nothing," she muttered and put down her bag, but her inquiring didn't let her rest. "Whatcha reading?" she tried to play the bored voice as if she was asking it as a side question to fill the time, but in truth, she was devoured with curiosity.

"Not your type." Dan mumbled, clearly pointing by the tone that 'her type' supposed to be romantic or something that kind of typical high-school-girl stuff.

"World domination?" Jazz raised an eyebrow, quippingly, smiling widely like a Cheshire cat around the fact albeit she couldn’t get her answer, technically her brother was reading a book in her room and he was seemingly frustrated by the distraction. Even if not in the near future – or hopefully not in Danny's future – but in an alternative timeline, it was happening. She felt herself a little proud.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" he questioned her as she started to get out from the bag her textbooks and exercise books. For a flash, Jazz could take a quick glimpse at her glued class schedule on the wall. She realized she was really skipping a class right now – more precisely one and a half to be exact. Why didn't she care about it? But then she identified the reason.

"I have bigger issues right now than being there." Even for herself it sounded raw, but to tell the truth she was still angry at Mrs. White. Unfairness always pissed her off – just as their parents’ stubborn obsession over Phantom.

"Wow." Jazz had to turn back to the unmistakably mocking note.

"What?" Dan closed the book, keeping his index finger as a bookmark, and lifted his head while giving her a very serious gaze.

"I have to memorize this moment." was he facing her, grinning widely "Tell me, could you say that again? I think I just missed that." was he tapping teasingly on the cover of the book with his fingers.

Jazz turned back to her bag, getting out of its content, murmuring under her nose. "It wouldn't be very wise of me letting unwatched a malicious ghost, would it?" she added in her mind that partly that was indeed the reason why she came home – or at least that was the reason why she couldn't have concentrated on the test.

"Do I look like a malicious ghost?" Jazz didn't want to answer that, instead, she voiced the most disturbing question that was bothering her for a long time – or at least since she had caught him at the door in this form. Not that he looked strange, rather on the contrary, he looked normal, almost- he almost seemed handsome – if she could say that about her brother –, with his pale skin, dark hair with the so bright blue eyes and tall, muscular body, but still- even in his current appearance had an eerie aura that made people around him be cautious.

"Why aren't you changing to your ghost form?" it seemed fair if he was poking her that she would do it too. She turned towards him, leaning against her desk. If she needed more information about him, she had to face him during the interrogation, examining his reaction and mimics.

"What am I a  _ changer _ ?" he drew his eyebrow disgustedly by the concept, even raised his hand indignantly by the ridiculous idea. But then he lifted his eyes to her, presumably realizing that was intended to be an interview, and asked, with a sneer "Would it be less confusing? Would you like to see that? Because I think you would not." Well, that was true. She pursued her lips.

Jazz couldn't tell how she had reacted if instead of a human version, she would have seen that monster again. She felt herself defeated. And wondered about how that could have affected him, that technically she was rather happy that he was in his current form, but he continued on an other way, examining his hands observingly. "Or is it that awful? I haven't ever had artistic integrity or enough imagination to find things out from thin air. I’d like it though, I guess..." was he examining his fingers.

Wait a minute...

"Isn't that your human form?" she gasped the words trying to put together the pieces, opening and closing for a second her mouth like a fish in an aquarium. He seemed so much like his current outlook would fit him, but what else 'find out things from thin air' supposed to mean if not that it wasn't?

Dan raised his eyebrows to the question. "I don't have any human form." he said just like he would have said the sky was blue, and Amity Park was a really beloved place for ghosts. It sounded true, though-

"But- aren't you Danny's future version?" he had clearly said something like that during their first so-called encounter "I mean he is part ghost, so you have to be–"

"So what? So I suppose to stay half-ghost and weak forever? Nah, I suppressed that a long time ago." he cleared with a nonchalant slight shrug. "Now, could you shut up? Pester Danny with your questions." he closed the debate, opening again his book. Jazz tried to continue the discussion, but he appeared again lost in reading and she doubted he would have answered any of her questions anymore. Any other try would have been futile. So that was it.

Jazz sighed and she couldn't tell why but she hoped the end of the week would never come – just as they had made an agreement last night that she would willingly drive him to Vlad on the weekend, after all obligations in school. In which as for exchange, Dan had given his word he wouldn’t cause any trouble for either her or Danny. (Not that driving there wouldn't have been odd and rather suspicious in case of a ghost, and first of all why even Vlad… Jazz couldn’t understand the reasons for that yet.) But until then she had only a few days left to get to know this version of her brother. And Dan was undoubtedly hiding something. There were too many questions around him. She felt as if she knew less by every moment.

Something obviously made him behave like that, avoiding questions and staying in the background when things started to be uncomfortable. It was different from Danny's behaviour, hiding his secret, being Phantom, but Dan wasn't coming up with made-up excuses and reasons, Dan was- it was escapism and avoiding to talk about an issue, completely shutting things off to close every attempt out before she could have reached a point to understand him.

She would figure out what was in him, Jazz promised herself. At least she got to know he wasn't just part ghost as Danny – half-ghost as Dan had defined –, whatever that was supposed to mean. And either she could fathom what being a half-ghost meant. There was only one way to see the whole picture, just as Dan had pointed, she had to ask Danny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently working on the next chapter - needed some correction and rewrite here and there... -, hopefully, I'll have enough time this week or at least on weekend to finish with that. If not, the upload will come two weeks from now - but I am really trying to keep the 'one-week' schedule. :)


	3. Danny Phantom 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jazz gets to a not-so-bright conclusion. Also, they have the ‘talk’ and she gets some facts about Danny – both of him actually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> way too many references in this chapter… wasn’t intentional, really – okay, maybe half of it
> 
> also, I had like four rewrites for this one – more than I currently have for Chp5 which is still in rough draft mode, -the heck! Now, it’s like a completely different version. I mean, okay, I know it has to be the ‘talk’ and so on, but somehow during each ‘okay, let’s do the last corrections on it’, then it turned out like a different version each time. I mean, I just opened the really first one, to compare if I missed anything that I wanted to mention and – what the actual heck! – couldn’t be even comparable – how?

Jazz knew Danny wasn't ready yet and that she was supposed to wait but counting with the unexpected guest’s presence, she had to know one thing and another, and rather fast. And on the other hand, she couldn't reach Dan or Danny through Dan – the latest wasn't willing to open up, and clearly raised avoiding to speak about things to the master level and either her psychological tricks did work on him, so she had no other choice, but Danny.

Jazz frustratedly sighed and let his brother's future self in her room, with his so beloved (stolen) book. She hated leaving him alone, but he made her frustrated with his hardheadedness, and over all she needed air and explanation from someone. All she had got in the past hours was an unpleasant grunt 'I'm not the one who is supposed to talk about it with you'. Yeah, it was like ping-ponging between two impossible parents: 'Sweety, ask your father.' 'I don't know, ask your mother. Maddie!'. Danny had always slipped out from her approaching in the past days since he had recognized she knew about his secret, and Dan was just as akin unreachable.

Jazz was sick of her brothers – _brother_ , she corrected herself. The realization made a little bittersweet smile on her face. So, technically, she was just dealing with Danny. But in this unique case, she had two versions of her sibling. Lucky her! She tried to shake off the annoyance from Dan before she would attack Danny with her questioning. She hoped her brother was home and not on their usual patrol with Sam and Tucker. Jazz had heard him taking the stairs upstairs straight to his room an hour ago, but she was well aware Danny could disappear without anyone would have noticed, only returning back at night or at dawn. 

Jazz then, calculating with the rather obvious absence, without knocking, stepped inside Danny's room, searching for her brother. If there was no sight of him, she knew it was a dead case – in the literal-est sense. But then, she got a view of a leaning figure on the desk, nearly on to laying totally on the vertical surface from the visible suffering.

"Oh, you are here." she relieved a sigh at her sibling's sight, sitting at the desk, struggling over a bunch of papers, exercise books, and opened high school books. Was Danny seriously studying – more like trying to, by the miserable outlook – then taking his common rounds in Amity Park? It had to be a serious case. She knew he was concentrating better on his studies since the C.A.T, but it had to be more than that this time.

"Uh, yeah? Unfortunately..." he mumbled in frustration. Jazz felt the reaction was directed to her not against doing homework. She bit her lips, she knew she could be annoying and very enthusiastic in her brother’s eyes, and everything sounded better than dealing with her, but she already knew that. It wasn’t a new thing, they were different, just as siblings, just as their lives and goals. But it wasn’t about her usual – as Dan had called it – ‘pestering’ this time.

Jazz wondered to let this whole interrogation to an other occasion – but when if not this time? Danny wouldn’t just simply say ‘let’s talk about it on Monday, I’ll explain everything to you'. _Hardly_. His schedule and unplanned necessities made this whole unworkable. She would have to chase him for all their living life to get any information. But then, she admitted, she could save it for next time. Danny really seemed troubled, leaning over his desk. He would have given up studying already, but he hadn't done it.

"I..." Jazz stepped to her brother peeking over his shoulder to the task to catch what was the reason for his self-tormenting. Under her sibling's pale hands, there was a messy paper with black dots with crosses, and crosses over the crosses, with even more crosses. It was a sheet-paper, hardly recognizable with the shadings, but it was a very familiar test sheet.

Jazz’s eyes widened. Hadn’t the Career Aptitude Test been a week ago? She clearly could recall it, her very short conversation with Danny as he had questioned her about the Booo-merang with her note… but- then it came together, the whole picture was seeable now, like pieces of a puzzle: _Dan_ . Danny had told Mr. Lancer about the (possible) cheating and presumably, his teacher had let him write a make-up test again a week after. And the week after was supposed to be tomorrow! She hardly managed to keep her body steady and not to faint in realization. _Oh, my god, this was the reason!_

Danny could surely sense her shock or just started to feel himself uncomfortable with her blank gazing at his messy notes, because he turned towards her with a weird expression. Jazz tried her best to hide her fear. She could deal with Dan – or at least keep him occupied if that was necessary –, but right now, Danny needed her help, and the first step for it was to avoid him freaking out too. On the other hand, she was on to not paralleling within the two ‘Danny’ and helping him. She bit his lips to concentrate. The retaking of the test wasn’t the help that Dan had referred to. _Shouldn’t have been_. Right? That would have been cruel, asking for her help against her brother...

Jazz closed her eyes and tried to close out the haywire thoughts. Then it became clear, if she had to be a guardian over his brother in both cases, and play her parts for each of them, then she would do it. She opened her eyes, Danny’s bright eyes marked her, with an annoyed look. He assumed she tried to cover his incapability to write the test right, she knew that. “Hey, it’s okay, you will be okay.” she put her hand to his shoulder encouragingly. Danny flinched under her touch. It was obvious he was scared, terrified even. But then his face turned into frustration.

“Why are you here, Jazz?” his voice sounded rough, but with an edge that hid the unsounded pleading ‘please, save me’. Jazz decided it was her mission to answer for that unvoiced cry.

“I came here, because...” _Because I just identified that the person I was hiding the past day from you a wall away, is on to take your place again, and I messed up to believe in him?_ – definitely, that wasn’t a good idea to say. “I’m here, because...” she tried again, but couldn't finish it, not with a reasonable explanation.

Danny stretched his hands, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably with the same movement. “It’s about the Phantom-thing, right?” His voice sounded really tired. “Listen, Jazz, it’s really not the best time for that.”

“I realized.” she almost laughed, hysterically, but then took on a serious facade. “What if I help you instead? With-” she peeked again over his shoulder, pointing to the most crossed questions. “With this to understand, and maybe with these ones too.” she circled her fingers over the shaded ones.

Her brother skeptically raised his eyebrows, considering the help, but then shook his head sharply. “No, thanks, I can solve it.” Jazz knew it was about his pride and about that he found her really annoying during tutoring. She always tried to be patient when she helped him, but how could anyone not lose their temper if the student wasn’t paying attention? It wasn’t her fault he couldn’t concentrate for a straight five minutes! Maybe was it because of his constant eagerness to be always alert? Or was it because since he was Phantom ‘normal’ things seemed dull and boring against the adrenalin-fuelled secret lifestyle?

“Danny…” she attempted with a kind tone, but he immediately cut her off.

“Leave it, Jazz!” he got a piece of clean paper from a pile beside him, covering the used ones in an annoyed gesture. Such anger seemed unbelievable for a single paper and for such a quick movement, but he almost ripped it into two pieces by that nervousness. Jazz knew he tried his best not to snap at her right away. “I can solve it on my own.” _No, you can’t_ – Jazz debated with him in her mind – _not, because of me._

Jazz took a deep breath, she messed up so much and for her naivety, Danny would be paying the price, she couldn’t let that. If Dan was on to cross him again, then she would step in, and help Danny without her brother would have known about it or either about Dan. Danny had much to worry about, her fault shouldn’t have been one of those things.

As her thoughts started to make sense, and she was determined to accept her part of the game, Jazz noticed the slightly shaking hand in the corner of her eyes. Her heart sank. She immediately grabbed his hand. “Hey, it’s okay. I know you can do it. I know you know the answers, I saw you studying, you know it, but-” she tried to focus on the current problem, to Danny, to the test. “You are just stressed, Danny. Stressing makes you doubt in the answers. See?” she hummed in agreement with herself and showed an example that in truth was right during the first shading. “You got it right the first time, here and here. You will know the answers, and you will take the test right, you just need to calm down.”

Now, his hands were shaking even more crazily, turning invisible and visible constantly. “I… _can’t_ .” She was on to debate with him, to believe in himself, but then, with a sudden snap, Jazz discerned it wasn’t about the test, the result of the test wouldn’t count that much, and either Danny wouldn’t have been _that_ stressed over the result. This, now, was over that.

“You are not stressed because of the C.A.T. test, right? You are- you are stressed because of… _him_.” as she sounded it, Danny got petrified. He hadn’t told anything about _him_ , and either Jazz had told him that she had met with _him_ , that the monster had shocked her and she had woken up then in her bed the next morning and she had seriously believed she couldn’t have stopped him cheating, but then Danny – yeah... that had been already his little brother, not that monster – had told Mr. Lancer about the (possible) cheating, and...

Jazz could never ask what exactly had happened last week. After Danny had stepped out of the class and he had given her back her written note along with the Booo-merang which she had shoved to the Portal before, she was relaxed, that whatever had happened was over. Danny had somehow managed to return back. But she didn’t know how and how he had succeeded to get replaced back from the impersonating. It was a mystery, a mystery that somehow in her mind was pictured as his usual fights with any other ghost, but by this reaction, now, she had to realize that wasn’t as simple. Danny was still affected by it. And she had let inside that _being_ behind that fear to their home with a smile on her face.

Jazz tried to shove to the back of her mind, that a few hours ago she had decided to count that monster as a kind trustable being – he/it _wasn’t_. Just mentioning that case made Danny terrified, making him shivering in his chair. She hugged her little brother from the back. “It will be okay, Danny, I promise.” she held him tight for a few minutes, unsure by the note she was comforting him or herself, and truly believing she could keep her word. She swore to be true to it.

Lately, Danny was not really fond of touching – teenagers’ typical ‘I’m not a child anymore’ behaviour – but after the first awkward second, she felt his muscles got relaxed under her. His breaths returned to a more natural pace. Just like him, she too became calmer during the not so uncomfortable sibling-hug. Jazz calculated soon they would feel each other’s body heat and both of them would be chilled – but _literally_? Instead of warmness, her arms started to go numb as it was touching her brother’s bare upper arms.

Her eyes snapped open. What? Chill? Jazz jumped back in a sudden, as the sensation reached her brain too, and took a step away in confusement, messaging her hands where the two skin had touched a second ago. Her arms were cold like she would have been standing for a few minutes in front of an opened freezer. “God, Danny, you are freezing cold.”

Her sibling turned towards her with his rolling chair, with a guilt-ish smirk, smiling visibly on something funny, rubbing his neck nervously. At least he seemingly had a better mood, Jazz noted, the magic of a great big hug... “Yeah, sorry, ghost-cold. Sam and Tucker are always complaining about this. That I kinda turn the classrooms cold to the end of the session. Glad, I miss a few of them ‘cause of fighting ghosts, otherwise they would have already built secretly a portable heater to carry with them.” he giggled.

Jazz’s jaws dropped. “You mean, you don’t- you don’t _feel it_?”

“No, not really.” he shrugged easily. Well, that made sense. She had just thought he was wearing fewer clothes because of the old habit ‘boys can’t catch a cold’, this now explained the reason for that, he continued. “One of the positive things in being half-ghost. I can’t feel cold, heat is a bit weird since then, but bearable, I work as my own built-in air-conditioning. Although my ghost-sense… well, that is really freezing, I feel the shiver through my bones, or molecules – what you call it in ghost form.”

“So, it’s a ghost-thing, like your breath being visible sometimes.” she put together. Now it was obvious, people could usually see their breath under 53 Fahrenheit, and her skin surely went rigid for a few seconds, and now it was tingling. Danny was in real cold. She never could tell that once she would believe in those ridiculous ghost-tales that the temperature dropped if there was an ethereal entity, but it was true. Danny was part ghost after all, one of those told ethereal entities. It was weird.

“I- yes. I call it my ghost sense, it goes off when a ghost is nearby,” he explained, and then, speaking of which, in the very same moment, it appeared like a reminder sign. From a used-to thing, Danny’s eyes went alert, his muscles tensed, fists clenched, his whole body was ready to be in action. But then a memory stopped him, making his features turn annoyed. Danny rolled his eyes, and let out a growl. Jazz got frozen in the realization that the visible breath meant a ghost was close, but as her brother became upset instead of jumping out of the chair, she was confused.

“But until I managed to catch those damn bugs this is just unreliable, and a false alarm,” Danny said grimly. Jazz wanted to question what kind of ghost-bugs he was talking about, but then the recognition hit her. _Those ghost-bugs_. The ones that Dan had said to say Danny to cover his attendance against Danny’s ‘misbehaving’ ghost-sense.

“Are you sure, this is the ghost-bugs?” she asked under her breath, not realizing she actually voiced the words, just when Danny answered that in a really tired voice.

“Pretty sure, it’s still them. They are really getting on my nerves for a complete day now, come and go constantly and somehow they are just upstairs like they would be stuck here in my room.” _Or in mine_ – Jazz corrected mentally. Danny looked around like he would have been to seek their location over their ‘invisibility’. Could ghosts see each other in invisible form or did they have an X-ray vision? – she wondered – better they did not. “Quite funny, I wish that would be an actual ghost. I would rather bear with Box Ghost now than with these damn bugs floating around. Or an actual real threat.”

“I bet.” Jazz bit her lips.

“At least as soon as this is over I have to learn to identify the threat-level by the sense. That would be really useful for future cases like this.” Jazz just hummed for the last note. For a moment both of them remained quiet, Danny started to fidgeting with his hands and looked around, this time not for searching the mentioned bullies but to get to a thought, or to find a way where this conversation was leading...

“Listen, Jazz I would tell you everything, but right now I _really_ want to study more for-” his eyes widened about the just-said expression. “oh, man, did I just say that?” Jazz almost laughed on his shock, but nodded in agreement.

“I know, next time.” she smiled and moved to leave the room, but Danny stopped her in a rush, jumping out of the chair, grabbing her left wrist in a sudden slightly over the edge of the bandage, clearly avoiding touching whatever injury was under it. Jazz wondered for an instant if he knew about her ‘slippy hands’ at all. It seemed Danny wanted to ask about it, but then he shook his head, making his mind returning back to their original issue.

“No, no, I mean, _yes_ , I really need to – _want to_ – study more, but- and maybe, next time would be better for that, but... there is one thing that you should know about me and Phantom and I don’t know if I would have enough nerve to tell this later, you know.” Well, that didn’t sound good. Jazz nervously turned to him.

“Uh, okay.” Danny looked into space for a slight second, but then showed his bed to take a seat. It didn’t start good at all, if he wanted her to seat down – Jazz was thinking. Although he seemed just as anxious as she felt herself. He was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed, playing with his fingers when he started, raising his head to her.

“You remember Tuesday when Phantom accidentally blew up the Ghost Catcher in the lab?” he asked.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad whined a whole hour about the ecto-scum that not just chased the box-obsessed ghost into our house, but also destroyed their property?” she tried to quote their expressions the best as she remembered. “That one?” She couldn’t say making ashes one of their parents’ inventions could be a big deal, they could rebuild another one – unfortunately – in a blink of an eye.

“Yeah, yeah, that one.” Danny laughed a bit, scratching his neck guiltily. “Let’s just say, that wasn’t accidental at all, I kinda made it intentionally?”

“Why?” she asked, astonished, before she could have changed her tone. Danny must have felt, it wasn’t on to be a snap, and a hauling up for his action, it was just a sudden honest reaction. Jazz didn’t question the motive either, she knew he must have had a justified reason for that, to destroy on purpose something. Especially that the Ghost Catcher was one of those Fenton-inventions that was rather passive against ghosts, and didn’t do any harm – or she might have been in a delusion. Then it came together. The whole two-Danny-case appeared before her eyes, Jazz nodded.

“Oh, yes, I understand. Both of you were weird, acting out of yourself- _yourselves_. Why did you even-?” she turned to her brother, raising her eyebrows in confusion. This Ghost Catcher thing rang a bell in her mind, but yet she couldn’t tell where to put it or what to do with it, she rather glimpsed at her brother. The corner of Danny’s lips uncomfortably curled up, an obvious note that after what had happened he also was aware now that had been a bad idea.

“It was for time-management. Could work though, but-” he shivered suddenly. “I don’t want to do that anymore, not because it was _weird_ , it’s more like…” he looked towards the windows, seemingly trying to get his thoughts. “When I first went through it, one of me was full-ghost, the other me is full-human, and since- since _that_ , I don’t want to risk if it once turns out wrong and I- I end up…” he bit his lips, silencing the end of the note.

For a long moment, he was just fidgeting with his fingers in his lap, but then something snapped him out of his mind-wondering state and took a deep breath, continuing the previous monologue. “...and this is also the reason why I don’t want Mom and Dad to know about me being Phantom, yet. Not until, I can be one hundred percent sure that wouldn’t- they would try to fix me and maybe ripping out the ghost part of me and- and I don’t know what would then happen. I saw what could happen and...”

Jazz grabbed his hand, which started to shake, altering between turning invisible and visible again, mirroring a repressed unpleasant memory. She startled as her sudden touch made him flinch, but then, realizing who was beside him, her brother took a deep trembled breath. She tried to be as comforting as she could, albeit she didn’t know much about his struggling, it wasn’t just about his fear about their parents finding out about Phantom, but even if she couldn’t grasp the real reason, she could ease at least on this one.

“Danny, you can’t be sure about that. I don’t think they would hurt you, their son, if they find out about it. Now, they are chasing you, and right now, it could _really_ happen they would hurt you or... even kill you,” she added the last words barely audible in recognition. Biting the words, that there were cases that they had almost managed to catch Danny as Phantom – it was only her sibling’s luck (or his ghost powers) that he could escape in time.

Against her sudden freaking out, she heard a dry cackle as a reaction from her brother to the note. “Luckily, that’s not an issue. I mean, they _can’t_. I- well, this is the thing I wanted to tell you, that you need to know about me and being Phantom. They actually can’t _kill_ me. At least not the human part of me – or at all. I mean, those anti-ghost rays just hurt the ghost part of me and I heal fast, and- they call me _halfa_ because…”

“You are half-ghost.” Jazz remembered from Dan’s description. Danny shook his head in agreement.

“Yeah, half-human, half-ghost. Half alive, half… dead.” he sighed funnily like it would have been still a thing to process. But then the description reached her mind. Half-ghost, half-human, because he was half-alive and half-dead, because to be a ghost you had to be _dead_. Wait. Was Danny _dead_? No, that couldn’t be. But- but-

“How?” she doubted her question was loud enough to be audible, and she either was aware if she actually asked it or that was just an echo from her shock in her mind.

“The accident with the portal” he started. “I- well I kinda got electrocuted inside, when I managed to turn it on to work. Thus I’m part-ghost, I mean I am half-ghost because I half-died inside?” Danny shrugged in ease. “You know, how ghosts can be ghosts, to be a ghost you first have to kinda die, so… I guess, I’m half-dead?” he stroked his hair thoughtfully. “Technically, I don’t know how we work, if we are both or neither in fact, I guess either Vlad knows what exactly it means, either the Ghost Zone knows, we are just the ‘halfas’ with its every enigmatic meaning.”

Jazz was so lost in her mind to comprehend what her brother was saying. The words reached her, but her mind was blank. _Dead_? Her brother couldn’t be _dead_. She knew how ghosts worked, but- and that Danny had similar things like ghosts had, even having a ghostly form, but that didn’t- _shouldn’t_ suppose to mean, he was _actually_ a ghost – or half-ghost. And to the top of that, he behaved and told it so easily. Shouldn’t it have been a traumatic experience or something like that? Like a death-experience? An _actual_ death-experience?

She couldn’t tell her brain just shut off for a whole minute, not until she heard the repeating calls, and in fine one of those calls somehow managed to slip into her mind. “Jazz… you’re okay? I know, it’s _much_ .” he was shaking her softly, but she just gazed confused at his hands on her like it would have been a mirage. If her brother was really _dead_ , then _how_? Shouldn’t he be a ghost, and untouchable or something? But then, all made sense. He was a ghost, half-ghost. He was half-dead. He had died.

“But you- you’re _all right_?” that was the only reaction that she could come up with currently, really? Her thoughts were still in a roller-coaster, incapable to leave the rushing vehicle. Danny nervously scratched his neck to the question.

“I guess, yeah. At first, this whole was kinda freaky, I freaked out _much_. Really. I couldn’t control it, and I didn’t know if I was, you know, alive or dead. I still don’t feel like I am dead, you know. Okay, I kinda died, or half-died, but- I don’t consider myself as dead. Just, I don’t know, half-ghost?” he raised his eyebrows in confusion, seeing the absurdity of it. “It’s… Tucker said it’s like a superpower, I can turn ghost if I want with the advantages of it, but still being alive- kinda alive. My biology is messed up. We ran some tests during the first few weeks. Oh, please, don’t tell Mom and Dad, they’d die to make experiments on me, on Phantom, I mean.”

Jazz couldn’t do anything but blinking constantly, she still tried to process the things. _Like a superpower_ , she liked that, it sounded better than realizing her little brother was dead – or half-dead, or even _less_ , if someone asked her. She didn’t wish anyone to find out things like that, being their sibling dead which meant at some point he had had to die – horribly. _Electrocuted by the portal_. Now, she understood why he didn’t want their parents to know about that. They would ask how it had happened, and surely Danny couldn’t _not_ tell it, that their invention was the cause of it.

She glimpsed to Danny for a slight second, his bright blue eyes were full of worry. He was freaked out because he had freaked _her_ out. His eyes were just as concerned as- as she had seen on _him_ . Jazz didn’t want to think about _him_ right now, but the oddities about that person and about what Danny had said were just floating in front of her eyes, like those so-called annoying ghost-bugs, bothering her.

He was just like Danny. Now, she could see why the Ghost Catcher rang a bell in her mind. He wasn’t acting at all like that monster from before – could it have been Dan was just like the other Danny? Another version? A human version of that _ghost_? But Dan had used his ghost powers, so that theory didn’t fit, or…? Still could be. That time when Danny had been split, her brother had been weird, everything seemed possible. And on the other hand, Dan – _when she started to call him again Dan instead of ‘it’, or either referring to that being as ‘him’?_ – had mentioned he had suppressed being half-ghost a long time ago and he didn’t have any human form…

“Jazz?” a cold hand touched her shoulder.

“Hm?”

“You're okay?” Danny looked at her seriously. “I shouldn’t have said _that,_ I know. Sorry… it must be shocking” for a moment, she couldn’t tell what he had meant under it, but then it hit her.

“Oh, _that…_ no, no, I was thinking about something else.” she shook her head. Danny lifted an eyebrow skeptically. “Danny, I’m okay, I mean, I wouldn’t say _okay_ , but I’m okay. I mean as you seem okay, and if you are okay, I’m okay too.” he raised his brow even higher, she blew off a deep breath that she wasn’t aware she was holding inside. “Well, not every day someone gets their sibling is _half_ -dead, okay? I need time to get used to it. I already knew you are part ghost, but I didn't _actually_ think you'd be a _ghost_. Does it count as a household incident?”

Danny was gazing at her puzzled for a long moment, but then his lips curled up slowly. “Was it a joke?”

Jazz chuckled truly. “Definitely a lame one. I’ll be working on it.” at least it reached the intended aim, getting them out of this spiraling bittersweet talk, and light the mood up.

“Sorry, the role of the puns is already taken,” Danny stated, and just as enlightening his position, he flickered his eyes to light up glowing green for a second. “I’d say I’m the spirit of puns, I died for that role, Jazz.”

Jazz couldn’t hold back a laugh, it was just so impossible and stupid. She would have said, death suited him, but to tell the truth, over everything, being Phantom in real suited to Danny. Maybe life wasn’t the easiest since then, being a teenager was one thing, studying another and then there was this 24/7 mission fighting ghosts and so on. But it was the part of him and… she knew he would be okay, if not, then, she would gladly help him, no matter what. As she was thinking about that, and helping under any circumstance her brother, _Danny_ , she went pale. Before she could have stopped herself, she embraced her half-ghost half-human sibling, hugging him tightly, holding on to this very moment, trying to close out everything else beside them. Especially the things her little brother didn’t know about. Especially those things...

The cold hug didn't felt so freakily cold this time, and by that, Jazz put together why Danny had opened to her, the C.A.T... she released her brother, facing with him seriously. "A little tip, Danny, about the test... Mr. Lancer likes 'B's, so if there is no 'B' in a row of five, then the next answer must be a 'B'. He likes 'B's three times more than the other options. And when it seems there would be more than one right solution, the answer is 'D', as none of the above. He is nasty."

Danny was just blinking at her baffled. His eyes widened, getting slowly what she was saying, then he pushed her away softly a bit pointedly. "The heck, Jazz! Couldn't you spill it, I don't know, _a week ago_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much to say, I did not expect this to turn out this long… at all, I don’t know how it happened. It was around 2,5k words (I was aiming 3k) then suddenly it was 7 pages long and I still had things to mention – I still have, but I rather kept them for the next chapter, like I mean, wouldn’t that be weird to have a really long chapter (like this) then a short one because I mentioned earlier everything? I really hope that won't happen with the next one, that I would be out of my words...  
> Also, joke on me, I had this flow of words after my two-hours-long German lesson… seriously? German made my brain fizzy to English? Joke of the year!
> 
> Note: I rewatched the episodes before TUE, and I realized the two-Danny-case was before it, so… it kinda gave itself, what would Jazz think about it, because she is smart and she sees things, and Dan is acting out of himself(?), that would make sense right? But she is still groping blindly, only knowing the parts of the truth. (And yes, Jazz doesn’t know many things. Who has time for detailed ‘talks’ when there are more serious things to worry about?)
> 
> I’m not saying count this way-too-long chapter as a bribe for two weeks, but currently, I can’t imagine I could make another chapter within the next few days, to upload the next one early-week again. I’ll try, but school is really started and I had a talk with my advisor today about my thesis (I’m so excited to start to work on it!), and I’m really on to keep myself in this semester to the deadlines, and for once be active in every class - even on the German ones (believe me, that’s a big deal!). So, I’d say let’s meet two weeks from now? :)


	4. Memories of one Future's Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don’t have any idea how to summarize it… Dan’s backstory? (I mean, a part of it at least…)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know I said 'two weeks', but yesterday I opened this chapter's file and started to think about it a bit, then it somehow wrote itself...
> 
> This little masterpiece did not existed at all a week ago, the original chp4 supposed to be about Saturday forenoon (sorry, spoiler alert), but somehow it wanted to be existing and it kinda made itself, and it turned out as long that it became a whole chapter, wow. So here it is. (Also, I thought if I finished it why should I make you wait for an other week, just because I wrote 'two weeks', so, enjoy :) )
> 
> Side-note: I read many fics about Dan, and about that little Danny (fourteen-year-old Dan) asked Vlad to rip out his humanity to not to feel – I had an other idea… This little modification doesn’t change what Future Vlad said to Danny about how Dan became, that is just how the man thought it happened, actually every coin has two sides, right? And people can’t see in each other’s mind and understand their point of view properly, just as how each of them see the same situation, so…
> 
> Warning: it is rather a sad one, so go get a bar of chocolate... I mean it!

Dan was sitting on the floor, legs pulled up, boots away next to the door, nicely side-by-side. Not that he would have cared with it, but Jazz claimed it very eagerly to consider the tidiness in her room. And obeying was easier than childishly going against her over such a nonsense detail and on the other hand, it was a good point. Good points meant trust. He could have debated with her that technically he didn’t go away and he had just used the boots when she had let him inside yesterday afternoon and beside that he had flown (at least for the book, hovering to the roof and back didn’t count as flying). But why would have it needed an explanation, if it was just a slight movement to get those off? Though, it was weird, following her rules without a word, just because it would felt good and relaxing for someone… – just as agreeing to wait for the end of the week to go to Vlad. To uphold hers end of the un-voiced bargain was still open, but time was nearing to it...

Dan blankly gazed at the toy in his hand. He couldn’t tell when he grabbed it. Was it half an hour ago or more than an hour ago? Clearly not soon after he had arrived back from the library, checking for Jazz. She hadn't been in the room, but by the monotonous sounds that were still coming from the other side of the wall, she was still out, having the chat with his younger version. Soon after that, he decided to stay, Jazz would have freaked out otherwise, and then he had started to looking around in her room (not that he hadn't been here earlier, but it felt as now like walking up and down in a museum). Then he had spotted the ugly bear on her shelf.

He wasn’t sure since when he was holding it exactly, staring thoughtfully at the lazy stitches on the dark brown material. It was a poor work, he remembered to it. Not that Jazz would have asked him to fix it, he had felt it as his purpose – after all, he was the one who had ripped the stuff out of it, just to make a point. Poor little Bearbert, that had had to suffer for a higher purpose. Poor Bearbert had had to be a tool by a cruel torturing for a sixteen-year-old girl to recognize the child in her...

Dan eyed the teddy bear. It felt childish. Childish, that Jazz loved it, childish that she still was keeping it even it slowly looked like as it would have been once or twice eaten by a dog. When had she got it? Oh, yes, when she had firstly attended on a geek tournament in elementary school – she had got it from her psychics’ teacher. Such a lame story. Their parents had been so proud that the teacher had called Jazz a little Einstein – they couldn’t have been talking about anything that day but that. Jazz had been looking at the bear mesmerized, naming it then. And him, his so-much younger version couldn’t understand anything from that. He had been like six? Seven? Their parents had rumbled something about that soon he would start to learn things in school too and just like his sister, they would be just as proud to him as they had been to Jazz now. (Until Jazz had decided to rather get interested in psychology… but that was an other story, their parents still were on to believe it was just a phase against their ghost hunting and addiction to ghosts.)

Dan cracked an almost rather forced smile on the thought. And where were they now? His parents? They had turned to ashes. He touched the lame stitches on the bear’s chest. He could have done it better, the stuffed animal looked like now as Frankenstein’s monster, or at least a step away to mistaken with rather a crazy turned-zombie scientist with its white coat and messy grey mustache and hair, then paralleled to its original inspirator. Danny could have spent more time to fix it – or at least trying to hide the stitches better. But what for? Dan admitted. Those were just stitches, not that anything could have been fixed if once a thing had got destroyed. The past couldn’t have been changed. There were things that didn’t suppose to be altered. He sighed almost sadly to the note. When was he starting to be such poetic? It was just a bear, a stuffed animal, not even his, not even _his_ sister’s-

A sudden movement snapped him out of the pointless thinking, the person nearly ripped the door to open it in a hurry. Dan prepared to turn invisible immediately, but only a red hair appeared behind the door. She seemed tired, but straight off checked around, searching for something maniacally. Then her eyes stopped at him, her figure only after that started to be relaxed as she spotted him, sitting on the floor.

“You were out.” Jazz pointed out, without any greeting. “Danny sensed you.” was it a question or an interrogation? Before Dan could have said anything, she marked him, like she would have been monitoring his intentions – if he would have been planning anything. Then Jazz hummed and took some hurried steps towards her wardrobe, getting out her bright yellow pyjamas, but before she could have left the room, with the same rush, she paused at the door and nodded at to the teddy bear within his hands.

“Put him down.” that was hardly a kind tone, but Dan didn’t debate, just put it down on the floor beside him as far as he could reach from his current position. Jazz disappeared in a flash not waiting for his reaction and before he could have grasped her suddenness and the unfamiliar sharp tone, she returned back, changed to pyjamas, just as fast as a hurricane, like she wouldn’t have wanted to miss any second. “The hell-”

Jazz immediately closed the door behind her and peeked at the stuffed animal placed on the floor, finally out of his hands, like he would have corrupted it with his touch. Now it was obvious. The previous had intended to be an inquiring. That hadn’t been a simple note, that 'yes, he had been out, and he had come back'. No, that had been an interrogation, like he would have been a misbehaving animal, that he had been out without permission, slipping out of his cage in secret, doing harm, acting like everything was fine. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. That meant something was off.

“Was out, yes, ‘took back the book. Nothing is on fire, chill out.” he added the last note pointedly, but she didn’t seem to catch the joke, not in the least, he rather switched back, not stretching her nerves or patience. She was not in a light mood currently for that. “You and Danny had some fun?” he asked, trying to stay on the friendly field then.

Jazz shrugged. “Could say that. We were studying,” she said, getting her decorative pillows and plushies off her bed. A day ago, he didn’t want to speak – either a few hours ago – but now, it seemed as she was the one who avoided talking. Dan raised an eyebrow.

“What for? It’s Friday, isn’t it? ‘the hell for is he studying today?” He snapped sharply. Jazz stopped in her motion. He could say, she got frozen for a moment. Was it his question or the tone? Clearly, he still had to work on how he said the words, but it had to be more than that. “Glad I’m over that at least,” he mumbled truly. Studying on Friday night? No thanks. Really, he didn’t wish to be in high school any more. That was one of the advantages of the things that had turned out for him. Wasn’t there much bright side, much to say, but this was undeniably one of those. Jazz turned to him, with confused eyes, like she would have liked to ask something, or making a note. Her expression was weird. “What?”

“Nothing.” she shook her head instead, switching off the light and covering herself with her blanket with the same hasty movement. “Night.”

“Night,” Dan grunted. Jazz was clearly angry over something, but yet he couldn’t tell why, he sighed and moved to prepare his temporary sleeping spot too. Not that he would have complained about that, just as he didn’t care with the D.I.Y-bed (made of Jazz’s extra blankets and pillows, that he was keeping in the daytime in a folded tower), but he knew this one would be a long night for both of them.

Just tell her everything, he played with the idea in his mind, thinking, she would understand it in fine. After all, she was an on-going psychologist. Jazz was just pissed off because she couldn’t see things clearly. She hated when she didn’t understand something or when someone didn’t open up and she tried to help. (Many of her nice attributes…) If he had spoken with her, at least his thought would make sense, but- _No_. Dan gazed to the ceiling, recalling the fluorescent stars in his room. Jazz’s ceiling was empty. She wasn’t a day-dreamer like he was. _Had been,_ Dan corrected himself sourly, turning rather towards the wall. At least the wall had been blank in his room too beside his old bed, without any memory.

Dan let out a growl and tried not to think about things, pushing his forehead against the cold wall. Still, it felt warm, his head was warm – obviously, it was on full-mode to closing out things, like an overheated computer, counting back the time to explode. Was it because he wasn’t in his original form since yesterday or was it because he was keeping inside his every ghostly part since then and the closed-out power was eating him alive (not that it would have been a case, consumed by his own ghost-part…)? Or was it because...? He didn’t want to answer the latest unvoiced question. As a matter of fact neither of those riddles.

Dan closed his eyes and tried his best to sleep – if he was even capable to sleep, ghosts didn’t sleep, after all, that was just a stupid human speciality, to keep their wee little mind occupied during nights... He wasn’t human, not any more, he was far far away from that. He was utterly the opposite, a counter-example, a subject of tales that parents told to their children to scare the shit out of them... Wasn’t in the definition of being human that he was supposed to feel or something? Or something… He wasn't human. That part of him had died ten years ago, he stopped feeling things ten years ago, stopped feeling anything but anger.

He didn’t feel anything now. Everything that connected to him to be human had died that time, and _they_ were the ones who had done it. _They_ had made him to be the current him. He hadn’t felt grief for them – either now among his used-to-be family. He didn’t feel remorse – even for Jazz, even for now. He remembered he had tried to feel loss, gazing blankly to their picture when he had arrived to his so-called archenemy’s place. But there had been nothing.

Going to Vlad had seemed the most logical choice, he hadn’t wanted his remained family members’ pity or worry after what had happened. The concerned looks of his aunts or uncles or from anyone. Vlad had been his enemy. Enemies didn’t feel sympathy towards each other, right? And Vlad had offered him the man’s place. Had been that because the man was a creep? He hadn’t cared. Seriously. He hadn't cared about anything. And then…

He had been so wrong. (But he had to realize, he was wrong every single time.) Thinking his ghost half had been a barrier against his human part to let him feel… (After all ghosts were just post-human consciousness, right? That was what his parents had always said. It had made sense. And that half-ghost part had kept him away to be completely human, to be… to feel…) It had had to go like a faulty piece, throwing straight into a dustbin.

Looking back, separating his parts just had made it worse. (Hindsights could change on everything if the problem had already happened, right?) It had just empowered his anger, especially towards his human half. That idiot! That incapable being! And there had been Vlad. The man had had one job, to make it properly, and he had screwed it up! He had wanted to rip both of them to pieces to the smallest pieces, to the molecules, to the smallest atoms... But then what would have happened with him? He couldn’t have gone back to his miserable vessel, either to Vlad… then he had made the decision, to destroy the glitch and wasting his human part. That had supposed to make the trick, right?

Murdering was such an ugly word if technically the one was still existing… but he had felt nothing, literally nothing, not a bit, not even the smallest piece of emotion. He still, right now, after all those times, he wasn’t feeling anything about it – not about _that_ anyway… it had been for nothing. Shouldn’t there have been anything between them, between his two parts, a link? Some connection? _Anything?_ No, he had been wrong. There was nothing. That had been for nothing! That whole! Was for nothing! The anger had crawled in him, growing up into mad thoughts with fool decisions…

“Shut up…” Dan whispered barely consciously, holding his throbbing head. Why was it so warm? It wasn’t fever-

* * *

 _“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” he repeated again and again in his mind, like a mantra, like iterating more and more would have changed on the things or would have altered on anything. No, it didn’t make any difference. Nothing could have changed on this –_ ever _. The worse had already happened._

 _His father’s last words echoed in his mind. “I thought we could trust in you, Danny.” And then there was just dead silence. No one said anything, and it felt worse than anything before that. It was worse than when they all had debated how much he was a disappointment. And after all the enlightened notes, they expected him to say anything, but they_ – _either of them_ – _said anything. Not even his so-called friends. They all remained quiet. The silence was painful. It made the gap between him and them even deeper._

 _They didn’t understand him, either Sam or Tucker. They didn’t try to defend him, telling he struggled at school, finding out a tale like they always did, spilling that he was Phantom – anything would have done it,_ really _. But they didn’t do anything. They had been just sitting there, both gazing blankly to their lap in silence, listening to Mr. Lancer’s tale about the cheating. They hadn’t said they knew about it; that was obvious, it was written on their face. They had defeated many ghosts, got out of many tough cases, and they three had always protected each other, no matter what. They had been each other’s shield and rational sense, like an inner voice. Just as they had come here with him because it had sounded serious, and they had exactly known what it was about, but they- they didn’t say anything. The closest ones to him of all people betrayed him. It hurt._

_He jumped up and run out of the place, leaving the booth where they all were seating behind. Leaving the fast-food restaurant behind, only stopping at the other side of the road, trying to catch his thoughts. He stopped just because he couldn’t know where to go, where to run. Home? No. He couldn’t go home and then pretending nothing had happened, acting normal after this. Living a life, like he wouldn’t have been kicked out of school – not yet, but as Mr. Lancer had informed his parents it was inevitable, the man would start the paperwork on Monday, it would be the teacher’s first thing to do. He had skipped school, his grades were low, so why not now? Cheating was just the final nail. It stoned his unavoidable future. Why should he have kept trying any more? Giving him a chance? No. He was a lost case. It was obvious._

_Some people passed by him in a rush. Why couldn’t they see his life was over? Because just like his family, just as his teacher, just as his friends, they just didn’t care. No one cared about him. No one tried to understand him. No one, who supposed to be his support. He was alone, he remained alone. After all that he had done, no one had said anything to defend him about the cheating. He couldn’t go anywhere right now, not even to his friends’ place. They all betrayed him. He lost each of them. Out of school, out of home, out of friends._

_It was Mr. Lancer’s fault, that the man couldn’t be more acceptable, or suggesting an alternative like a make-up test or something, a detention for example just as the teacher was doing every single time when he was a thorn in the man’s eyes… –_ anything _. But Mr. Lancer hated him from the beginning. Sometimes he even wondered that the teacher was only picking on him with every step that the others had done. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t have time to study. Either cheating wasn’t his fault. When the Box Ghost had appeared and during their fight, he had flown through Lancer’s briefcase, it wasn’t his fault the solution got stuck on to his back. It was the Box Ghost’s fault to be there and that he had to catch the ghost._

_It wasn’t his fault, Mr. Lancer knew about the cheating. It was Jazz’s fault not defending him in the first place – otherwise how the man had supposed to know and be sure it was him who had ‘stolen’ the solution, not someone else? Jazz had had to say something or implying to it that he was behind it. Wasn’t protecting supposed to be a sibling thing? That was what sisters and brothers should have been for, wasn't it? Protecting and standing for each other was coded in elder siblings -- or as far as he had thought. He was wrong. It wasn’t about giving him a lecture, no, it was worse than that now. He wished it to be just a lecture from what he could learn or something. But it wasn’t his fault._

_Either it wasn’t his fault that his so-called nearest friends didn’t defend him against everything else. They hadn’t said anything to explain why he chose to cheat; despite they were well aware he had no time. They knew exactly why he didn’t have time to study. Clearly, they didn’t know that over their usual patrolling he spent every night fighting ghosts over those times when they had been with him. They didn’t have a ghost sense that woke them up every single time. They didn’t live above a Ghost Portal that was the door for ghosts to escape from the Ghost Zone, just to dissipate boredom. It wasn’t his fault, they thought catching ghosts was just an occasional way to pass time._

_It wasn’t his fault, it was only him to fulfill that task. It wasn’t his fault, he had to protect the people, to protect Amity Park. It wasn’t his fault, he was the one to do that every single time. It wasn’t his fault, he had tried to neglect several times his ghost sense, but then his conscience hadn’t let him rest. Who supposed to do that, if not him? The Red Huntress? No, he didn’t wish Valerie the sleepless nights – after all, albeit her case wasn’t entirely his fault, but he felt responsible for her, she deserved a normal life, she and her father had enough problem to worry about than letting her fight his fights._

_It wasn’t his fault, he felt this whole as his responsibility. He was Phantom. He didn’t choose to be Phantom, but he was. It wasn’t his fault, that the world hated him, and he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It wasn’t his fault at all, that his parents invented something lethal and they had put the turn-on button inside of it. It wasn’t his fault, he had accidentally pushed it. It wasn’t his fault, he had died – half-died – inside. He hadn’t chosen this life – half-life anyway._

_None of those was his fault. He just wanted a normal life over that, a normal life after school, a hint of normal life after high school. Although he already suspected it wasn’t an option any more with him being Phantom, but he was trying to hang on to the slightest chance to be normal somehow. To hang on to his dreams that he hadn’t became a lost case. He was trying to believe things hadn’t changed since he was Phantom. He was trying to believe his old life still had a chance, his old dreams to reach still counted, that there was a chance that he was still the same and Phantom was just a side-life._

_He was wrong. They all didn’t give him a chance to try. They all had taken that thing away from him, ripping out every hope with it. He felt as he was a step away from blowing up. He felt the anger was suffocating him, he felt his skin was burning from inside, and hotness like acid was crawling in his veins. His chest was warming up with hatred towards them. He felt metal, the sour aftertaste of betraying. He felt fire and smoke and his head was throbbing. He felt like he would have had a fever – which sounded ridiculous since he was half-ghost and incapable to feel heat like before._

_And then someone touched his shoulder. A part of him hoped that the person was one of the ones who had betrayed him, but it was just a stranger. “You’re okay, boy?” the man asked, and the world slowly returned back to his mind. There was a constant shrieking voice, like a siren, and people were running up and down, and there was this heat… - no that heat was inside of him, not outside. “Did you get hurt?” he couldn’t tell why the man was asking it, but then he looked around, trying to catch the reason for the concerned and worried look._

_Where he had been a minute ago, where he had been a minute ago with his old, naïve life and dreams, was wasted. The place was nowhere. It was- destroyed, completely wiped out, blown up. The surrounding became clear, the firefighters, the scared folks, the witnesses of the scene, and then there was him, standing with his back to the place during the whole time, running away from the exact place._

_“Do you know who was inside?” the man asked. “You must be lucky being outside, away enough that you didn’t get hurt.” Who was –_ had been _, by the obvious hopelessness – inside? Like he would have been aware of who had been inside after the place had almost blown up entirely a few days ago! Who would have been that idiot to came back after Phantom had caught the Box Ghost by throwing at the ghost an ingredient that caused a little explosion, hitting out one and a half wall? Who would have been that reckless to return to the place after that? Going there after that… the person must have had their reasons – like a very special unique case…_

_“Oh,” he whispered, as he realized who had been that careless. A someone who had wanted to make a point with meeting at the Nasty Burger, as an example to a lost case to a student that was also a lost case… He looked around, perceiving the sight, the flames over his former life, the debris around the pieces of his former dreams. All was a mess, burnt into ashes, without any chance to turn the things back, to rewrite them, to start again… it was over already. He watched it, like he would have been watching a movie or something, and tried to put together the pieces that he was watching the waste of his life…_

_“Oh.” he said again coldly, and even he could swear he added in his mind “how unfortunate.”_

* * *

Dan let out a growl, and opened his eyes, massaging the bridge of his nose. He hated recalls. He hated that after ten years he started to remember things. He hated he started to remember _now_. He hated he started to remember things _here_. Yesterday night was nothing against this now. It seemed the more he was here, the more time he had, the more came back.

Yesterday there had been just hints. Remembering the kindest tea Jazz had. Recalling that detail only by the taste and smell of the tea. Remembering how to bandage properly Jazz’s injury. Remembering where _Mom_ was keeping the first aid kit. Remembering the poor excuses, he had said when he had been Phantom. Remembering like that had been a day ago, not ten years. But _this-_ he didn’t like it.

It was the worst and he wasn’t ready to face now with another _pleasant_ memory. Not with a one that involved Vlad too, not with the ones that involved his feelings, not with the ones that involved… he even didn’t want to think about those things. He got up and jumped up, throwing the pillows and blanket away.

He could tell Jazz snapped opened her eyes by the sudden motion, to be alerted whatever followed his movement. Dan knew she wasn’t sleeping, not a bit, she was monitoring him since she had come back from Danny’s room. When he turned to be the bad guy? – he wondered, but rather skipped to answer that question. He already knew the answer for that.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” he cleared for her making it obvious he was aware of her acting. “I just need some distraction.” he stepped then to her bookshelf, wondering. What a shame it was that he couldn’t go out and choose a book to his taste. Now he had to manage it by one of Jazz’s books.

“Which one of yours is the dullest, hardest, and longest to read?” he could tell she was wondering to answer it, to reveal in truth her act, but then she mumbled an answer in an exhausted voice. Against him (or Danny) Jazz wasn’t a night owl, but seemingly she really tried to stay awake despite the darkness in the room and the cozy blanket.

“Sec…nd r…, f… left, third …ne. B… I d…n’t th… you …ld li.. it” she muttered the words barely understandably, audibly half-way on to sleep against her intents to stay awake longer. After all, it was nearly two in the morning. Jazz had left Danny’s room around at half past eleven -- by the clock on her desk at least -- but even that time had been over to her usual sleeping time. Trying to be awake must have been really hard for her right now, and what for? Just to be a guardian if he had disappeared again?

Dan grabbed the mentioned book from the shelf. Indeed, he had to agree with her, he wouldn’t like it, but at least it was something else than closing his eyes again. Anything sounded better than those memories, even this ridiculous psychology book sounded a better option, with the lamest title man could ever give to a book, than those pictures. “It would do it. Thanks.” he walked back to his spot and took on a comfortable position for a long run.

“…n’t you n… a …ight?” he cracked a slight smile on her mumbling. He was on to order her to sleep, but he knew it would have been pointless. Just as he was aware, she would sleep in half an hour, with those drowsy words maybe within even less time.

“No thanks.” Dan opened the book, and blinked, summoning his ghost eyes. He knew as he flipped the first pages, Jazz was on to ask how he could see in the darkness, but that question faded into her soft breathing before she could have voiced it. Less than half an hour then, he noted and started the first chapter in the book. At least someone was capable to sleep, for the rest, there was a psychology book to pass the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you get the chocolate I mentioned above? Now, eat it!  
> Anyways, has anyone done the maths? ‘Cause I just realized this whole would play in like two and a half day? (Just to add, we are currently on Friday night / early Saturday, so, guess what would be the next…)  
> Also, I don't know how things would turn out for me, with my stuffs in school and work, so let's say, I try to keep the 'one week', if not 'two weeks' then. :)


	5. Illusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here and there Jazz needs some clarifying about Dan, and well, it’s also Saturday, so… trouble is also on the way to knock on the door (actually, literally, but without knocking…).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as the previous one wanted to write itself, this one did not, I had like four different versions for that, even struggling where to cut it or how to end it, and then, I sat down to think about it from the beginning, then by that, this (fifth for the same concept) version got born, I kinda satisfied how it turned out - kinda... undoubtedly better than a certain one, with a bakery product...  
> (Funny fact: in one of the versions there was a half-page-long scene about a croissant, seriously, about a croissant! Could you imagine that? Such a nonsense. I have to go with the plot, I have a serious issue about the plot, and then there was this 'very serious' scene... it had to go. But just thinking about that, that somehow, at some point I thought that was relevant, sounds so funny... maybe once, I'd use it. So if you expect croissants, this one does not contain croissants...)

“No, no, thanks, I’d be fine,” he heard Jazz’s words, then a bit vibration shook the walls, as an obvious note that someone started the engine of the RV on the street. Dan opened his eyes. He couldn’t tell when he had closed them, or since when he was sleeping – or just resting his eyes by the lack of the so nice recurring memories, – but surely the reading had made its impact, his mind was just empty, not remembering at all when he had passed out. Now, only as Jazz’s voice was coming from downstairs, followed by some blurry sentences, realised Dan it was already morning. Actually, too early for a weekend morning to get up in time without any explicable reason, he noted, but stepped over that fact as it appeared in his mind. Nuance detail, really.

“No, really, I have some essays to write, better be alone to concentrate.” Jazz continued, presumably trying to convince her parents to leave her out of their plans. Dan could even imagine she was waving to them, as they were getting into the Fenton GAV. Saturday was it, right? (If yesterday had been Friday, then it had to be Saturday…) So according to that it must have been the time for the weekly shopping or something like that. Dan sat up, stretching his limbs and neck – not that would have been necessary, it was rather a used-to reflex, but it felt good. By the slightly heard conversation, he put together, Jazz would be – or maybe Danny too – at home alone. Well, that was what he wanted during the whole time, right?

Definitely, the last night had been weird – especially Jazz – but it was over now, whatever it was, it was over. Now, approaching the time to fulfill Jazz’s part of the deal was within reach. That fact made him a little bit terrified, what if- but he shook his head. He couldn’t let himself wondering about things – or more like _worrying_ about things – which were yet far. One step at a time. First, Jazz, then Danny, and… and now it was the best time to get Danny inserted to the picture too. Admittedly, Jazz yesterday hadn’t been in a good mood, and that made him doubt that maybe he was again on the edge of trusting, but, maybe… maybe she had just needed a good sleep, and in the end, she couldn’t blame her, he had just invaded two days ago, inflicting his company on her and…

Jazz didn’t have any reason to believe he wasn’t here to do harm, just his words claimed that, without any further information. Dan couldn’t even tell why she was still tolerating him being here. Maybe she was just fond of deciphering him and not letting him loose. Maybe… upon the whole, Jazz was just like a ghost as he was, obsessed, with psychoanalysing people. And she wasn’t willing to slip anyone out of her hands. Dan was glad Jazz hadn’t got an idea yet to order him to sit on the couch, getting out her notebook to take questions – he wouldn’t survive that, even if there was no chance for him to die from anything. Not anymore anyway.

For a second, Dan queried if there was now any chance to step to ‘phase two’ also known as to get Danny involved, by Jazz’s unfriendly behaviour from last night. But he had to recognise, there was no other opportunity for postponing the unavoidable. Maybe he had managed to build up a certain leveled trust in Jazz during the past days. Not that, that would have been an act, but looking back, he couldn’t either claim he hadn’t been led by some unknown impulse to hold back himself. He couldn’t say here and there he hadn’t been thinking about giving up this whole ridiculous deal with Jazz, waiting patiently like a good boy until the weekend, because ‘there was school to attend’, and not short-cutting to just get Danny instead. In which case, there would have been a fight, he was aware of that, an unnecessary one, and well…

He had also needed time to think. This all had happened so quickly and he had just ended up here. This whole was just – _after all_ – a hasty decision, but- he had no other choice, but to come here, to the past way before everything had happened, and to this place... Besides, he had needed time to arrange the whole, put together the pieces, and capture his thoughts. And had that happened? _No_. He was just standing here, now with the same damn questions, and as confused, and as lost what to do and what to think, as before, he didn’t really know _anything_. Especially not about what was supposed to be the right thing. Well, he knew, but over that, he was- he was just lost.

He was afraid if he had started thinking over _that_ , he would change his mind and everything would come back, his carelessness and alienation from everything both human and ghost, and his present and his past and both realms, the Earth and the Ghost Zone and… wait. Was it carelessness? That meant, he was _caring_ now? No, that sounded ludicrous. He just had an aim to reach, to pay a debt. It wasn’t some human bullshit. He had been just reading that damn psychology book for five hours straight and it messed up his mind. And for sure, if Jazz had been pissed off over something last night, he didn’t care. It was just about if she had lost her trust. In which case that would be harder and messier to get Danny then. It wasn’t about… _caring_. Even if it was, it all didn’t matter now.

“Good luck, Danny!” he heard Jazz’s voice, with a closing front door. Wait, what? Danny was out too? Dan slipped through the walls curiously if his deduction was right, appearing right behind Jazz, dropping invisibility just at the same moment as she was turning around. By the shrilling voice, and screaming, that wasn’t the best timing or the best way to remind her to his attendance. Reading by as the red-haired teenager was holding tightly her chest, trying to calm herself down and getting her breathing to a normal pace, he had just made her jump out of her skin, almost literally.

“Damn- damn it, don’t- don't do that!” she stuttered the words still in shock.

A part of him, Dan had to admit, was enjoying it, that he succeeded to scare her, but… somehow, another part of him, a slight part of him, peered at her, blankly, reading the sign if she was okay, regretting the nasty action – like he- like he supposed to feel remorse after something that was clearly _not_ his fault. She was just a human, and humans were always so jumpy and easily frightened, and… he glimpsed to Jazz’s still bandaged hand before he could have comprehended what he was doing. Yeah, humans were so vulnerable, fragile even.

Dan passed by her, and tried to neglect the weird knot-ish almost suffocating pressure in his throat. It _wasn’t_ guilt. No, that sounded hilarious. He was just making up things, and… he was just angry. Frustrated that he had to care for her, that he felt he _had to_ care for her, and that he was stuck here for two days, just because he had decided to act ‘nicely’. He was full with that now. Yeah, that was it. He needed a diversion before his mind started to come up with such absurd deductions, that he- he felt _guilt_. What a foolish idea that was! This damn place just made him to wonder if- assuming that he was capable to-

Dan let out an annoyed growl and walked straight to the kitchen. He needed something to get over these preposterous thoughts. He turned his hand intangible and searched for the box within the empty space between the two cupboards. If he had remembered well – and he remembered well – that spot was one of the secret hideouts for cereals and other snacks where he had kept his special ‘Phantom-nutrition’ for cases when he had skipped meals to fight ghosts and later, he had needed something to eat in the middle of the night.

Dan grabbed a smaller bowl and milk too, along with a spoon, and satisfied sat down at the dining table. Just for a quick flash, he raised his head to check Jazz. She was still standing on the same spot, maybe she was still on to settle down or something. Humans were fearful, he reminded himself. Dan approvingly hummed to the note and filled the bowl with the cereal, pouring it half with milk. Gazing to the suddenly served food, he paused, the whole scene seemed like as a breakfast from his younger ages, before the Phantom-stuff had happened and he had time and energy for a proper-ish breakfast. It felt like a déja vu. He frowned and rather spooned from it. Hell with those memories. This place was haunted, he already knew that and... it haunted _him_.

Dan hesitatingly studied at the spoon, but then rolled his eyes and took it, wondering when had been even the last time he had eaten anything. It was a rather stupid question; he could easily tell the answer. But what was the enigma what it had been. A dinner? Lunch? Meat? Vegetables – just as Vlad had insisted to eat at least something healthy, if he had been capable to eat? Or had it been spaghetti – just as a last attempt to get him by the teenagers’ most beloved food? Now, after ten years, it was really hard to tell. And even... it was all a mess, some things were mixed, and some were missing, and... he couldn’t even taste this damn cereal now. He grabbed the box to decipher by the description what kind of fruits did he supposed to identify by each loop. For him, it felt like rather as sweet dirt with a liquidated portion of Ghost Zone, empty and cold. Was he even capable to taste things? Surely, he could, because he had felt Jazz’s tea really good, but- then why this faded to abyss then?

Well, he had a really good and sadly well-fitting conception for that. Now, that idea unmistakably made a sour taste in his mouth, he pushed away the bowl, staring into space. He hated this place, it messed with his mind. Undoubtedly, he had much on his record, or something, but- that didn’t mean he should have been asked out in his every awaken minutes – or in his sleep. Yeah, the latest cases were definitely the worsts. The last one still made a shiver on his skin. Every single time when he was just thinking about it, he felt as his vein started to boil up and he would have been eating alive by fire from the inside and- that was why he had needed that damn psychology book. He couldn’t run away, each of his steps just made the whole worse. He had managed to escape from the picture, but then the book messed up his mind.

“Great, just great.” he crossed his arms over his chest. “Not that I wouldn’t have enough problem already,” he muttered under his nose. As he was taking some breaths to calm himself down, pinching his nose, he made out he was behaving childish, like a sulky little kid. (Even his human disguise did _not_ help on that, somehow, acting human came from deep, like struggling to taking breaths and such _antics_ … he couldn't control it, those came from without being aware, like it would have been embedded inside of him, it wasn’t for a perfect act, no, it was- just _out of control_ )

He glimpsed towards Jazz if his sudden childish behaviour was noticeable, but the red-haired teenager was still placed on the same spot as before, just as a few minutes ago, eyes focused at the clock on the wall, like she would have expected for something to happen, biting her nails in the meantime, apparently unconsciously, waiting for the inescapable fate. Dan lifted an eyebrow. What the hell was she doing?

“Jazz,” he called her, but it didn’t seem she was aware of the world around her. Dan groaned and got up, walking next to her, but in the last moment stopped a few feet away from her. Not that he would have cared, but he didn’t want to frighten the shit out of her again. And he hoped her current nearing couldn’t lead back to that slight little shock, or something. That would have been unfortunate. How did he supposed to deal with a shock anyway?

“Jazz, you’re okay?” he took the question, putting softly a hand then on her shoulder. Start with that why he was even asking that, he wasn’t concerned, but- as she flinched under the touch, jumping away like a scared little cat as she turned towards him, recognising to _whom_ the hand belonged on her shoulder, _well_ … that really made him skip a heartbeat – not that could have happened, but he really felt like he skipped a beat. “Hey, the heck!” he reached out for her, but Jazz immediately, like a reflex, recoiled. Dan in cold realisation dropped his arm.

“You- I thought-” This was fucked up, so fucked up, why was she- Dan shook his head. “Jazz, I thought we already discussed it.” Certainly, he gave her no reason to trust him, yes, but- it didn’t feel right. She was terrified, trying to hide the shaking of her body by hugging herself and eyes fixated to the floor, avoiding his sight and… she had got out of biting her nails when she had been twelve, now it seemingly came back with a legitimate reason. She was stressed over something, and more specifically she was stressed over _him_ , otherwise, she wouldn’t have acted like that and- yeah, he didn’t clear himself, technically she didn’t know shit about anything, but- it didn’t feel right, and… now, thinking more about it, she had lost her last night, this was off since then.

Dan took a step back, then an other one, then an other... By each step Jazz became calmer, but her muscles were alerted, following him in her eye corner getting away and away from her and then, Dan reached the coach. It surprised him, but then, giving a hollow look to the furniture, Dan let out a harsh breath, taking a seat slowly. “Now, are we good?” he asked then, with a little bit of hoping edge in his voice. “See, I’m just sitting here, doing no harm.” Jazz raised her head to check him, but she didn’t appear convinced much. It hurt. He couldn’t tell why or where or how that it was even possible, but it hurt. Dan planted his elbows on his thighs, his chin propped on his hand, and glared to the carpet under the coffee table. It was so off. It didn’t feel right at all, and… _it didn’t feel right_ , he didn’t- why was it even affecting him? Why was she- the worst one was that he already knew the answer, he got it, it was crystal clear, but it still didn’t feel right. She didn't have a reason to act like that, out of blue. He hadn’t done _anything_ yesterday that would have explained _this_. Right?

A long time had elapsed in dead silence, he couldn’t tell how long it had been, it felt like an eternity. Dan seriously thought it was Clockwork’s hand in it, just to mock him, but then he heard Jazz moving, with retreating steps, and somewhere a door was opened. He was still gazing at the floor, almost making out the system of the structure of the carpet, but then a ‘click’ followed by a very familiar whirring sound grabbed him out of the mind-wondering. Dan snapped his head up, just to meet with Jazz’s eyes looking directly to him from the door of the basement.

“I- uh… Danny forgot to turn off the portal.” he didn’t have to think much to put together that was a lame lie. Dan pursued his lips and turned his head away, if that was what she had wanted to tell to him to knock off from the issue, well, then he wouldn’t enquiring. Especially, whatever she had done there, she seemed much calmer after that. It wasn’t any anti-ghost weapon, she didn’t have any on her, but it was something like that, a somewhat protection that soothed her stress down to a bearable level, something like- _Oh._

“You turned on the Ghost Shield, didn't you?” he breathed out, slowly. She definitely needed something to uphold their previous status quo and by her sudden fear towards him, she had to take a drastic step against the unbalanced forces. That was a rational thought, still... not that it would have counted much against him, but right now, he didn’t have any mood to let out his Ghostly Wail and got out and... on the other hand, with the shield on, it was clear and undeniable: he lost her.

“What? Why would… I- I didn’t-” she stuttered, but it was obvious, that it didn’t work. Jazz might have been capable of lying or coming out with truth-like explanations, but she wasn't him – _Danny_ – to come up with believable excuses in a second. Her attempt was translucent. Dan rubbed his forehead, uncomfortably, letting out a deep breath resignedly.

“All right…” he decided then, giving up the whole. There was only one way now to change on things, he realised. “I’ll speak, okay?” he raised his head, slightly, peeking at the confused teenager. “That’s what you want. A reason to- to believe or trust in me, right?” Jazz opened her mouth, but no voice came out. Dan's lips curled into a nervous half-smile. “Well, there is no other choice for me, isn’t it? And I bet you wouldn’t take me to Vlad until I say something in my defense or something.”

Jazz’s brows crossed, gasping the word. “ _Vlad?_ Is it about him?”

Dan tilted his head, studying her confused. Then what it was about, if not about that? If not about that she ‘trapped’ him inside to keep off him leaving the FentonWorks and be out? Then what it was about? What was the reason then if not _that_ about her obvious fear? If it wasn’t about that, then what was it? Was she just scared because- because she was just scared of him without _anything else_?

Jazz hesitantly stepped closer. “It’s- I mean…” she paused, then continued turning towards him. “It’s just about Vlad, you mean, you don’t have any-”

“Other ulterior motive?” he helped her out, raising an eyebrow. Oh, so she was thinking that he had another reason over to ‘just going to Vlad’. Dan shook his head. “No, I don’t have any other reason.” Well, she didn’t look like she got assured. “Jazz, I’m just here to go to him. Nothing else, I swear.” technically, that wasn’t a lie… he was here, in the living room, to wait for the perfect time and to Jazz to go to the man, yes. In fact, the Jazz-part hadn’t been calculated, but that was his luck that she had been the one who had opened the door. In truth, he couldn’t imagine what could have happened and how things could have turned out if he had met with Danny straight then.

The thinking was obviously readable on his face, because, just then, Jazz moved and took a seat in front of him with a serious frown. “Speak then.” she wasn’t convinced, but she _tried_ to believe in him and was willing to listen if he had told some acceptable explanation about his attendance and reasons.

“Right, well…” Dan ran his fingers through his hair nervously. He knew once this talk would happen, but he wasn’t prepared. He wasn’t prepared to tell _everything_. Summarizing the whole to the main points without spilling everything was the hardest. Dan stared intently on the floor to concentrate, fidgeting with his fingers, and started. “Me and him…” why was it so hard? Because he was on to close this thing out from his mind during the whole time, digging the doubts and everything into a deep hole and rather just focusing on to-

“You said he is your arch-enemy.” for a moment he couldn’t tell when he had said that, but then the memory came to his mind. He was on to make a comment to it, but then without saying anything, his mouth just twitched.

“Oh, yeah, I said that.” that statement gave the impression like it had happened during another life, with someone else. (Was he _else_? Just as he was different from his past self before the- he wasn’t _different_ , he hadn’t _changed_...)

“He isn’t?” Jazz took the question, reading clearly his struggled mimics. In fact, she was an on-going psychologist, she could read people. Great. He couldn’t hide things from her, but he had to try, he wasn’t prepared to think about… _things_. That was much to- _think_. He needed time. All eternity actually, but to tell the truth, he just couldn’t procrastinate things for all eternity, not in the doorstep on ending those things. If he was capable to handle _that_ , then he wouldn’t have to deal with the haunting thoughts, and… everything would be over. Once and for all. Besides, he couldn’t tell who was an ‘enemy’ anymore… things were more complicated than just those titles.

“I wouldn’t- I wouldn’t say he _isn’t_. Or that he still _is_. It’s…” he drummed his fingers slowly on his thigh, making an effort to emphasize the whole and to not think about the whole much than it was necessary currently – otherwise he would have ended in an endless spiraling of controversial thoughts, he knew that. “Things happened,” Dan said shortly then. “Many things, you could say, but- the main point is… I have to go to Vlad. I need him in something that I can’t tell you specifically. I-” he bit his lips, continuing in a quiet voice. “Once I want to make a thing right, okay? That’s- that’s all. And please, don’t ask questions. I can’t tell more about it.” either he couldn’t think about it much, not without… “Just don’t ask about it what is it okay? _Please_ , Jazz.”

He couldn’t say the reason loud, and he knew he didn’t say it in loud, but that silence about it didn’t make things restrain his mind not to swirling around it. With this all, with this all recurring memories and stuffs – curse this place, curse on Jazz always being in vision as a reminder from a forgotten, not-existing-anymore and left behind past, curse her damn psychology book that messed up his mind, curse everything – he couldn’t escape from those things forever. Once that past had to attack him, right? The memories belonged to his past life, when- not from when he had been still Danny and Phantom too. No. The pictures from when- when he had been that being he had wanted to destroy and… he had messed up and… _he had messed up_. It hadn’t been Vlad who was wrong. He- _it_ -

“A second chance.” Jazz whispered, and her voice sounded like that had been coming from a mile away. No, that wasn’t about... but- he suffocated on a breath kept inside. How that was even possible if he didn’t need breathing? It was just a mimicking, a used-to reflex, but- it _burned_ , and it hurt. He felt again that damn hotness, the burning from inside, and… wasn’t that- but- was it _that_ the whole time? Was he _wrong_? During the whole time? It wasn’t about… _second chance_. It felt… profane, so wrong, but-

“You could say that.” he breathed out, observing his hands suddenly. Human hands. He would have abhorred such disguise, something remembering to being human, being one of that kind that betrayed him, but- it wasn’t felt right and… after all, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t his human form, it was a lie. It was an illusion of a made-up form, of a fabricated one, not even formed by his existing one, just as he didn’t have any human form and… it was just a lie, a pathetic reminder to the things- if the things would have occurred differently, maybe he- undoubtedly Vlad had artistic integrity against him and the man was as a creep that he could combine it with science, reconstructing how he could have _been_... maybe, in another life. He pressed his lips to the thought. Curse Vlad, he had a talent for this. It felt so real, so believable, just as the lie that he was telling himself that he _didn’t_ …

Everything was just a play, a damn chess-play against… time and- but things weren’t just black and white, and it wasn’t just a game, either a rush for winning, it was- damned and fucked up. Everything was so wrong. Everything felt wrong, everything felt false, every bits. He couldn’t even tell what was real anymore. He shouldn’t have remembered to things; he had supposed to left that life behind, forgetting about everything. (He should have become just a post-human consciousness, right? That was being ghost meant. But things weren’t that easy...) He shouldn’t have felt physical things, he had supposed to be a ghost, without capable to taste things. He shouldn’t have felt warmness, he had supposed to be unearthly cold and ghostly, and… he shouldn’t have felt… he shouldn’t… things shouldn’t have given the strange sensation that he was... _missing things_. And he- he hadn’t supposed to come here, but he- he had a thing to do. He had to believe things were capable to turn _good_ \- even if that sounded so hypocritic, especially from him.

“It’s not about Danny.” Jazz realised, making to get him out of the maelstrom of mind-fucking thoughts. Dan snapped his head up. Wasn’t about… _Danny_? How she- “You didn’t come here to get Danny, it’s just about Vlad.” she continued, attempting to put the pieces together. “Whatever it is, it’s not about Danny. He isn’t even involved. I was wrong, I thought you-” her voice trailed off, and as he raised his head studying her, it appeared as her whole world view changed in a flash and that the things, she had earlier thought about him had got rewritten in her eyes in a mere second. Her figure turned relaxed and as she bit her lips, it looked like as she was on to apologise. Dan opened his mouth to say something, but a very familiar sense stopped him, he felt eyes on him, _piercing_ eyes towards him, and-

He had to tell he was feeling something was off a moment ago, by a form of chill through his spine or something, but- now, it became clear as he turned his head towards the front door. That, now, didn’t help on things to explain to Jazz, not a bit, it just messed up everything, as he was looking back to the piercing bright blue gaze, smirking uncomfortably towards the person standing a few feet away from them. The boy must have phased through the door to be unnoticed till now, and it didn’t ease on things that as both of them were staring at each other, the ghost sense went off in synch. Best with the timing. It was way over to hide anything. They were over nice introductions. It was obvious, it was screwed, but he let out a half-smile towards his younger version, acting calm against the oncoming storm.

“Hi, Danny.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will stay with the 'two weeks' scenario, so let's meet two weeks from now until then I do not sorry for the kinda cliffhanger-stuff.  
> Anyways, go get a croissant, because croissants are funny.  
> Side-note: I know there are two kinds of people, ones who like Danny's evil future version called Dan, and ones who prefer to call him else (like Phantom, etc.). In my story, I'd say, both are safe, Dan is called Dan because he has a reason for that. I know, it's not important really, but once I thought I should mention it. So, as Danny is in the picture now too, I should say, he doesn't know Dan prefers Dan or either that his alternate future self (alternate, because he defeated him, so that future is not existing anymore...) calls himself Dan, so- it's just 'him'.

**Author's Note:**

> wow, it turned out longer than I first expected it would be...
> 
> currently, I am planning to post the chapters weekly - if anything happens like school-thing, work and so on, I'll write about the change :)
> 
> right now, the next one will come at the beginning of next week


End file.
